Top education news stories

1. Powell wants ‘more supportive and understanding’ school accountability system

Education secretary vows to make sure that ‘we get the whole regime right’, writes Schools Week.

“There’s nothing that is more concerning to me as education secretary than the idea that our accountability regime in this country would lead to a headteacher to taking their own life. It’s just absolutely awful and that is not at all what we should be about, the kind of culture and atmosphere that that that is created here.

“So, I take incredibly seriously teacher, headteacher wellbeing and yes, of course we need an accountability structure and regime to continue school improvement.

Powell is due to meet Perry’s family next week. She said she would continue to work with headteachers and others “to make sure that we get this Ofsted framework, but also the culture, and the whole regime, right”.

The Department for Education declined to expand on Powell’s comments, and what they might mean for the inspectorate.

Source: Powell wants ‘more supportive and understanding’ school accountability system (schoolsweek.co.uk)

2. DfE plans £800m national SEND CPD framework

Experts welcome plan but say sustained investment in training will be key, writes Schools Week.

The planned framework would be used to deliver a significant proportion of the already-confirmed £200m training package – though some elements have already been procured separately. It could be live for up to six years and would have a “maximum potential lifetime value” of up to £800 million, meaning it could be used to deliver SEND workforce development longer-term.

The framework would “support the government’s investment in SEND workforce development and provide a flexible route to market for both immediate and future SEND CPD requirements”. However, the DfE stressed that any investment beyond the confirmed £200 million remains subject to future Treasury spending review decisions.

Source: DfE plans £800m national SEND CPD framework (schoolsweek.co.uk)

3. We can’t separate data on attendance and behaviour, says Ofsted chief

School leaders criticise failure to clarify separate grades as ‘troubling’ and ‘misleading’, writes Schools Week.

Oliver agreed to “look into” the analysis, which Paffey said the committee “would be grateful” to receive, but in a letter to the committee this week, he said: “Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to reliably provide that information.”

While inspectors “do write separate narrative judgments about each section, without manually going through every inspection report it is impossible to reliably identify which area a school needs to work on more, and of course some schools might need help in both areas,” he said.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said merging the two areas “has simply not worked” and “too often creates a misleading picture about school performance”. He also said the fact that Ofsted has been unable to provide the requested analysis to MPs is “troubling” and “raises serious questions about the robustness of the approach and suggests that Ofsted itself may be unaware of the scale of the issue.”

Source: We can’t separate data on attendance and behaviour, says Ofsted chief (schoolsweek.co.uk)

4. Achieving the White Paper’s attendance target

Hitting the White Paper’s attendance target will be harder than the headline number suggests, writes FFT Education Datalab.

Returning it to pre-pandemic levels would only deliver around 0.5%of the target, requiring a 30% improvement per severely absent pupil. Persistent absence (10–49%) would need to fall by roughly 7% to hit pre-pandemic norms, contributing 0.6%. Even fully recovering “regular attenders” (under 10% absence) would add just 0.3%.

Together, a full pre-pandemic recovery across all three groups would clear the target – but the author argues severe absence, having only risen in recent years, is unlikely to fully reverse.

Without progress there, hitting the target would demand a complete recovery among the other two groups instead, a tall order given 2025/26 progress appears to have stalled. The modest-sounding number, the piece concludes, likely understates the scale of what’s actually needed.

Source: Achieving the White Paper’s attendance target (ffteducationdatalab.org.uk)

5. Tightened guidance to stop schools ‘dodging’ new uniform law

Prime minister announces crackdown on schools that ‘pressure’ parents into buying branded school uniform, writes Tes.

Prime minister Andy Burnham warned that school uniform should not be charged at “luxury prices” and that costs were getting “out of hand”. He said: “I’ve listened to parents, and alongside the cap on branded items that came in this week, I’m going further to change the rules. We’ll close loopholes and make sure schools shop around for suppliers and consider payment plans.”

Education secretary Lucy Powell added: “No family should be priced out by a school’s choice of uniform supplier or an insistence on branded items. We’ve been clear with schools – three items for primary, four for secondary, no exceptions and no excuses. If schools try to work around that, we will step in.”

Source: Tightened guidance to stop schools ‘dodging’ new uniform law (Tes.com)